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This whole cap and trade thing reminds me of a discussion I took part in as part of our city’s Master Plan Rewrite Committee. As part of the Master Plan Rewrite we filled out an SGRAT survey (Smart Growth Readiness Assessment Tool, a product of Michigan State University). It allows you to evaluate your city by SMART growth standards. The intent of SMART growth is to stress the reuse of property and so inhibit urban sprawl. If I am not boring you yet, here are the ten tenets of SMART growth. 1. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices—(...

Alaska legislators argue Gov. Sarah Palin is overstating the strings attached to federal stimulus money she's planning to reject. But Palin isn't backing down and said she still won't take the $28.6 million for energy programs.

Has Fred Thompson's entry into the presidential race got you wondering what a Thompson administration might look like? From a federal management perspective, it's an interesting question. Thompson would come into the job with a relatively large amount of experience in overseeing government operations, since he chaired the committee formerly known as Senate Governmental Affairs. In an Aug. 2001 column in Government Executive, Paul Light, now a New York University professor and then a vice president at the Brookings Institution, took a look at Thompson's tenure, taking note of his presidential prospects. At that point, the senator was weighing whether...

GOP unworthy of governing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This column is going to make me very unpopular with Republicans. I don't care. It must be said. Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government. I sincerely regret this is the case. I would much prefer that there were a real viable alternative to the Democrats, who are not only unworthy, but also unacceptable. But wishful thinking is not going to protect our country. Wishful thinking is not going to expand freedom, promote...

WASHINGTON--DEMOCRATS are all but breaking out the Champagne. Republicans are divided and disheartened; President Bush's poll numbers seem to be in free fall. Many Democrats are talking not only about victory in November but about what they will do once Congress is in their hands. Such talk may well be premature. Election Day is six months away, and the party has lost many a winning hand. But here is a slightly heretical question, being asked only partly in jest right now: Is it really in the best interest of the Democratic Party to win control of the House and Senate...

From Riverside to San Francisco to Bakersfield, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is spending the week touting his economic record at taxpayer expense, taking credit for California's job growth on his watch and patting himself on the back for reducing the state's structural budget deficit. At the same time, Schwarzenegger's political team is highlighting the Republican governor's economic batting average in its first television advertising blast of the spring. Schwarzenegger campaign strategist Matthew Dowd drew no distinctions between the campaign ads and Schwarzenegger's official state business when he told reporters Monday, "We're talking about the economy this week, and this ad is...

Amidst the fallout from the special election, there is a renewed discussion about governing from the Center. It is a mantra championed by many a consultant and some “moderates” – in both the Democrat and Republican Parties - that claim you have to be a centrist/moderate to win/succeed in California. Simply stated, that simply isn’t true. It is not true because in order to succeed, politicians must be well defined to attract voters because the “very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.” Put another way, voters generally do not elect...

David Aikman's recent book, A Man of Faith: The Spiritual Journey of George W. Bush, highlights the pivotal role religious faith plays in George W. Bush's life and presidency. The book chronicles Bush's slow ascendancy to his faith, taking note of the key people and seminal events that helped shape his Christian worldview. Aikman, a former senior correspondent for Time magazine, is an open Christian who is sympathetic to Bush's core religious principles. Aikman's work is the second one that touches on Bush's faith. Stephen Mansfield wrote the first, The Faith of George W. Bush, which was released last year,...

I’ve been challenged a few times on this blog to defend myself as a “libertarian”. Here’s a quick and incomplete statement of principles that I use to fit myself into that pigeonhole. As a “Jack Libertarian” I’m guessing that I’m in the minority of citizens of the state of Oregon, but I don’t really understand why. It’s probably the case that most people would rather let the experts (preachers, doctors, advertisers, talk show hosts, Ph.Ds, country music stars, gummint bureaucrats, etcetera) make their choices rather than listening to them and making our own choices. Small “L” libertarians are people that...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

COVER STORY: In a White House interview, President Bush discusses his faith, his role in the battle against homosexual marriage, and his determination to fight terrorists "who conveniently use religion to kill" By Marvin Olasky BATTERED BUT not beaten, President Bush met with eight Christian journalists on May 26 and said terrorists "want to sow fear so that we'll withdraw. I will not yield to them, to their blackmail, to their murders." The "I" was not an anomaly. George W. Bush, taught to identify that one-letter word with ego, rarely used it in small groups while governor of Texas and...

No Injuries Reported BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Militants fired mortar rounds at the airport and two roadside bombs exploded Friday, hours ahead of a signing ceremony for the country's interim constitution, a key landmark in U.S. plans to hand over power to Iraqis by June 30. No injuries were reported. The signing of the document, scheduled for Friday afternoon amid tight security, was delayed for nearly a week - first by tough negotiations among members of the Iraqi Governing Council that went beyond a Feb. 28 deadline, then by a three-day mourning period following two suicide attacks Tuesday that killed...

Kingdom Will Not Discuss Iraqi Debt Write-Off With Governing Council: Saud P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News Staff JEDDAH, 24 December 2003 — Saudi Arabia will not discuss any loan write-offs with Iraq’s interim US-appointed government, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday. He said the Kingdom would wait until Iraq had an independent government before looking into the possibility of reducing the debt. “This (debt) has to be discussed with a government with total sovereignty, so... this issue is now premature,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. “There is an international dialogue and we are willing to take...

Warning: In this citadel of raging partisanship, no reader will agree with more than half of this column, but ... The recent news that the economy grew at a 7.2 percent annual clip during the last quarter is only the latest reminder that we Americans have had the best governance in the past 23 years that we have had since the time of the Founding Fathers. Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush; House Speakers O’Neill, Foley, Gingrich, Hastert; Senate leaders Mitchell, Dole, Lott, Daschle, Frist — combine them all and, although they were fiercely partisan, they have given us amazingly good...

SELECTIONS In the aftermath of Wednesday's attack on American personnel in Gaza, the US announced that the FBI will conduct a thorough investigation. ........... Last week, WorldNetDaily reported that the FBI has rejected, apparently systematically, applications from Jewish Arabic speakers to serve as translators for the Bureau. ............. Two weeks ago, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, the Muslim-American responsible for for vetting and accrediting candidates for Islamic chaplaincy positions in the US military, was arrested on terrorism-related charges. ............... Last year, in the face of public protests, FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke at Alamoudi's American Muslim Council's annual dinner. FBI spokesmen have referred...

US orders extra security for Iraq's Governing Council By Justin Huggler in Baghdad 16 August 2003 Even as the United Nations voted to welcome Iraq's Governing Council yesterday the United States was already increasing the intense security surrounding it. Paul Bremer, the US's civilian administrator for Iraq, has deployed 120 new security personnel to guard the 25 members of the council appointed by the Americans to help run its occupation. The council members are almost never seen in public. They meet behind closed doors in a building set back half a mile from the road. No one is allowed in...